8 Things You Should Know About The Biggest Thing A President’s Ever Done On Climate Change
Source: Think Progress
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/02/3443593/obama-historic-action-on-climate-change/
On Monday morning, the Environmental Protection Agency released its proposed rule to limit the amount of carbon pollution that existing power plants can dump into the atmosphere. This is the most significant move President Obama has made to address the direct causes of climate change.
The Clean Air Act, passed by Congress in 1970 and amended in 1990, is finally getting to tackle carbon pollution from the nation’s 491 smoke-spewing coal power plants. Contrary to what fossil fuel advocates claim, though, it does not mean that EPA will be directly shutting down coal plants. Each state would have a broad menu of carbon-cutting options, including energy efficiency improvements, adding clean energy sources, implementing a carbon tax, or instituting or joining a cap-and-trade system.
By 2020, states will have to have drop their carbon emissions from existing power plants 25 percent from 2005 levels. By 2030, according to the proposed rule, those emissions will have to drop another 5 percent — to 30 percent — from the same base 2005 level.
Here are 8 things you should know about the new rule:
This is the most significant move any U.S. president has made to curtail carbon pollution in history.
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Piles of coal are shown at NRG Energy's W.A. Parish Electric Generating Station in Thompsons, Texas.
On Monday, President Barack Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, plan to release a proposed rule to limit the carbon pollution of existing power plants. Power plants are responsible for one-third of all domestic climate pollution, and while there are reduction requirements for acid rain, smog, soot, mercury, and lead emissions, this will be the first-ever limit on power plants’ carbon pollution. This proposal is the centerpiece of the president’s Climate Action Plan.
In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA had the authority to limit climate pollution under the Clean Air Act. The EPA will issue the new power plant standard by employing its authority under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act “to develop regulations for categories of sources which cause or significantly contribute to air pollution which may endanger public health or welfare.”
While the EPA’s proposal is not yet public, polluting interests have already started to attack it. The National Mining Association is broadcasting radio ads predicting huge rate increases, claims The Washington Post dismissed as “bogus” and “wholly unsupported.” The Chamber of Commerce joined in on the attacks as well: its Institute for 21st Century Energy issued a new report claiming there would be huge economic ramifications and job losses from the EPA’s unreleased rule. The EPA responded, saying “the Chamber’s report is nothing more than irresponsible speculation based on guesses of what our draft proposal will be.”
As the debate begins over the EPA’s power plant pollution-reduction policy, opponents of climate protection will continue to make fatally flawed forecasts. It is critical to a factual and straightforward discussion of the proposed rule that government officials, the media, and the public ignore these phony claims. Instead, they should consider some fundamental facts that are essential to an honest debate about the merits of the EPA’s proposal.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2014/05/30/90678/fundamental-facts-of-the-epas-climate-protection-proposal/
